The present invention relates to a method of dividing the body of a slaughtered bird into a back half and a front half, said body being suspended by its legs from a conveying means, being advanced with its breast forwardly directed and being cut to pieces during its travel.
Methods of this type have been used in the art. These known methods are, however, unsuitable for dividing the body of a slaughtered bird in a simple manner into a front half consisting of the breast part and the major portion of the back part of the body, and a back half consisting of two back-quarters each comprising a leg, a piece of thigh and a portion of the back, which rear part is subsequently to be divided into two separate quarters, if so needed. This is due to the fact that dividing the body of a slaughtered bird into a front half and a back half in the manner as desired, is rendered difficult in that between the legs of the body suspended by its legs in the usual manner there is a portion of both the breast and the back, an opening being bounded by said portion in conjunction with the legs. If consequently, the suspended body is divided into a front half and a back half by means of a simple cutting operation, this will result in the breast part at the said opening becoming part of the cut-off back half, which is not desirable, instead of becoming part of the cut-off front half. In order to prevent this from occurring, the known methods provide therefor a cutting, in a first step, of the area located centrally between the legs in longitudinal direction, and a cutting, in a following complex step, of each side part so obtained, into quarters. In such case, the parts resembling the said quarters often contain the undesirable rear portion of the breast part. Therefor, these known methods have the drawbacks of being complicated and of thus rendering it impossible to obtain the said, commercially attractive, front half and the remaining back half which consists of two easily separable likewise commercially attractive back-quarters, not containing a portion of the breast part.